T.O. to Cincy?

As most of you are probably aware, Terrell Owens was recently contacted by both the St. Louis Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals to see if they could sign him before training camp.  Yesterday, news came out that St. Louis had backed-off their original offer, and Cincy has since been described as the favorite to acquire Owens.  As per ESPN's Adam Schefter, The Bengals have offered Owens an "incentive-laden" contract and they have given him the deadline of Wednesday to sign.  Apparently, Carson Palmer has been active in recruiting T.O., both by contacting Owens personally and by having conversations within the Bengals organization to drum-up support for the embattled receiver.

The only other possibility for Owens at this point seems to be the New York Jets, but one source told Schefter that the chance of that happening is around "twenty percent."  It has been likened to the Jets' previous conversations with JaMarcus Russell, of which nothing came to fruition.

Personally, this worries me.  I'd much rather see T.O. in New York, where we'll only have to play him once in Week 1 when most of us agree the Jets will still be ironing out some off-season wrinkles.  But for T.O., the clear choice here has to be Cincinnati.  It gives him a chance to rebuild his reputation and play with a real passing game, where he will be a part of a formidable receiver tandem that will keep teams from loading up on one receiver or the other.  

Owens was recently interviewed on NFL Network by Rich Eisen, and I have to say it was an Owens I'd never seen before.  He seemed humiliated, humbled, and indeed desperate.  He was essentially using the interview to beg teams for a second chance, imploring them to forget his penchant for being a diva and think primarily about his ability to play.  Personally, when I think about his ability to play, I start getting worried about possibly having to play against him twice this year.